Jez Bragg refuels as he approaches the Kingsdale checkpoint

On a blustery May day in the remote valley of Kingsdale, the crown of the ruler of the fells slipped from his head, and a young pretender picked it up and ran into the hall of fame.

The turning point in this year’s Fellsman race, one of the most gruelling in the ultra-running calendar, had come a short time earlier, when Mark Hartell, for so long the man to beat, felt his hamstring pull on the descent from the event’s second mountain Whernside.

Usually reliably injury free, Hartell, 11-times winner of the event, had to drop out at the next checkpoint, leaving 30-year-old relative newcomer Jez Bragg free to stamp his mark on the 49th Fellsman.

Mark Hartell pulls up with a hamstring injury at Kingsdale

Macclesfield-based Hartell, 46, had in recent years made the Fellsman his own. He held the record – 10hrs 15mins – for the 60-mile course, but made a rare navigational error last year, allowing Chester runner Duncan Harris to take a lead he would not lose.

Hartell had looked forward this year to a three-way battle between himself and the two younger challengers, but it was not to be. Harris had, incredibly, won the 33-mile Wuthering Hike two months previously, with a stress fracture of his fibula, and was out of action.

Now, clutching a painful leg, so was Hartell.

Bragg was free to tackle the 320m (1,050ft) climb to Gragareth, and from there run into the record books with a winning time of 10hrs 4mins.

“There were three of us, including Mark until Kingsdale,” he said. “Andy Mouncey was up there as well, and then, climbing up to Gragareth, that’s when I started to get a bit of a lead and then I broke away heading down to Dent.”

Hartell had said at Kingsdale how useful it is to have fellow runners pushing you. It’s not a view shared by Bragg.

One competitor in high spirits on the climb to Gragareth

“I quite like it on my own; I like my space; I like to just run it how I feel rather than feeling as though you are in some sort of a group,” he explained.

He said he had no definite idea of setting the fastest time. “I’m very, very pleased to have broken the record. I didn’t come along today with a plan to have a go at the record.

“I was just going to see how I felt, but I got to Dent – about 20 miles – and I felt pretty strong; pretty comfortable, and I thought: I might have a go at this; conditions are about right; I’m feeling strong; give it a crack.

“So I was working out in my head a 10-hour schedule, based on the distances at each checkpoint, and I hit those. I think I slowed up a bit on the final hill, Great Whernside. It felt as if I was a bit behind, so I really put it in coming down to Yarnbury and it came good in the end.”

Glynn Daniels finds the going tough on the steep climb to Gragareth

The North Face team member appeared very focused out on the course, which follows a route over most of the southern Dales peaks: Ingleborough, Whernside, Gragareth, Great Coum, Great Knoutberry, Dodd Fell, Middle Tongue, Buckden Pike and Great Whernside. With 3,470m (11,385ft) of climbing, it’s a tough course.

But Bragg took it in his stride, just as he had a similar race a fortnight previously. I did a very hard, competitive race, two weeks ago, the Highland Fling on the West Highland Way,” he said. “That’s 53 miles. I came second.  I was three minutes behind the leader. On the back of that, I didn’t really know how my legs would be today. I also had a pretty big week on the munros straight after that, doing a few sets up munros with my girlfriend.

“It could have backfired but it seemed to do me no harm.”

Fellsman competitors head for Gragareth

He explained his strategy: “I try to keep it quite simple; I didn’t know all the checkpoint distances today. You just focus on them one by one. I think that’s all you can do, because otherwise 60 miles gets overwhelming. I think you’ve just got to take it one step at a time: checkpoint by checkpoint. I didn’t really have a set agenda.”

The weeks of dry weather had broken a couple of weeks earlier over the Dales, leaving more give in the bogs of Langstrothdale and Wharfedale. “Though you weren’t going up to your knees in the bog, you were just ankle deep,” the Dorset-based athlete joked.

Remedial work on tired muscles for this group

But the weather suited him, and helped him break the record. “Conditions were good today. We were only running into the wind for a few miles then, from Dent onwards, the wind was generally behind us, so it was sweeping me along and keeping me cool. It’s pretty damp underfoot; there’s been quite a lot of heavy rain recently.

“I said I thought I’d like to get the record one day. I didn’t think it would happen today, but I don’t know, maybe under 10 hours next.

“It’s one of those races where it’s all about the conditions.”

Second-place runner Adam Perry finished 1hr 39mins behind the winner.

The Fellsman record crowned a good run for Bragg. “I had a really mixed year last year,” he said. “The first half I had a really nasty stress fracture on my heel.  This time last year I still wasn’t running, then I pulled it back together and I won the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc race in the Alps in August, which was a really big win.”

The Mont Blanc race was hit by bad weather and was stopped half way through. “I won the restarted race, which still had 1,500-off guys, so that was great for my running career. Then I still had a few ups and downs, so it’s pleasing that I’m feeling it’s coming back together,” the Dorset runner added.

Hikers pass on the out-and-back leg to the Gragareth checkpoint

He is now setting his sights on his next big event. He said: “I’m going out to do the Western States 100 again in the Sierra Nevada in California. That’s one of the biggest ultras in the world.

“I did it two years ago. It starts in Squaw Valley, which is a ski resort, and it drops down, going through canyons.

“That’s towards the end of June. These two races have been part of the build up to that. So it’s good for confidence.”

But he also has his eyes on that magical 10-hour time for the Fellsman, and reckons if conditions are right, it’s do-able, despite an extra half kilometre being added to the course with the Middle Tongue diversion.

“I’m sure I’ll come back. It’s just a classic British race. There’s a good feel about it. Classic British conditions, with great friendship: the people running it and taking part,” he concludes.

It’s a view shared by his biggest challenger Duncan Harris and next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the event, all but the first two of which have been organised by Keighley Scout Service Team. It would be a fitting occasion to take the race to a new level.

A smiling Nicky Spinks, fastest woman and third overall

Also pushing the boundaries was fastest woman Nicky Spinks, whose 11hrs 51mins, just six minutes behind second place man Adam Perry, put her in the record books and marked a superb achievement for the Dark Peak Fell Runners member.

Her 2011 time was 48 minutes shorter than the previous year’s and would have been a race-winning finish some years.

Final finishers Shelagh Hopkinson and Alison Barrett

At the other end of the leaderboard were Shelagh Hopkinson and Alison Barrett, who took 28hrs 27mins to walk the course. True to the original ideal of what started in 1962 as the Fellsman Hike, the two women were typical of the many who endure the lack of sleep, the night navigation across black bogs, and whatever weather the fells of the Dales can throw at them.

Stamina and hardiness are also needed by the hundreds of helpers and volunteers who make the staging of the Fellsman possible, from the catering staff to the drivers of the ‘body buses’ that ferry retired competitors forlornly back to base; from radio operators tracking the progress of hikers across the wild reaches of the Dales; from first aiders and the event doctor who are on hand to help those who push their bodies just too far.

And the checkpoint staff who clip the circular plastic tallies that provide the enduring record of all the blood, sweat and, sometimes, tears, that are encapsulated symbolically in a six-inch diameter disc.

Gragareth checkpoint staff Sue Bell and Christine Hall

Typical of these were Sue Bell and Christine Hall, cocooned in a two-person tent at the trig point on Gragareth, as a steady stream of competitors approach to have their tally punched after one of the steepest climbs on the whole route.

Sue’s husband is a Fellsman veteran: he’s done it, she thinks, 24 times, and her contribution is to carry the tent to the 627m summit and await her 300 or so customers. She has staffed the Gragareth checkpoint for 10 years, the last five with Christine, who greeted every approaching with a personalised cheery salutation.

“Hello Mr Blue Shirt; how are you doing? Hello Mr Yellow Shirt! Here comes Mr Bandage on Leg…”

What’s the appeal of spending six hours on a windy hill top recording numbers and listening to the crackle of radio messages?

Sue explains: “We just enjoy doing it. You meet lots of folk and it’s very nice to have all these fellas running towards you with these smiles on their faces. It’s very good for the ego.

“They’re very friendly people and it’s a great event. We’ve got great views, though sometimes you can’t see anything. We have been up here before and it’s been pouring down.”

But today, there are views of the Lakeland fells, the Howgills, the Bowland fells and Morecambe Bay. The two volunteers seem impressed too that you can see Heysham nuclear power station.

Competitors have their tallies clipped at the Gragareth checkpoint

A runner takes the last of a bowl of jelly babies left outside the tent for competitors and Christine continues her greetings: “Hello Mr 387!”

The typical enthusiasm of the Gragareth pair is one of the factors that draws people back to the Fellsman, despite the pain, the anxiety, the despair and, sometimes, the triumph.

Saturday was a triumph for Jez Bragg, with a record time on only his second outing. Next year, he could be back with his eye firmly fixed on a sub-10-hour time. And he might not be alone.

Did we catch you on camera? 94 pictures in our gallery. Visit our photosales website.